Chapter 1:Everything disappears

My heart, wearied of everything, even of the Expectancy,
Will no longer bother fate with its wishes:
Only lend me, Vale of my childhood,
A one-day asylum to await the Death.

Everything disappears and everything escapes. Around her the world seemed to disappear, the walls become elusive forms were closing in on her, leaving her suffocating. She looked at the stairs standing behind her, one hand clutching her chest, feet rooted to the ground. A new step, her foot was cut out of the ground to return it flatten again, seeming to blend into the sloshing of the room. Under the light of the entrance hall, a long carpet preceded Sansa, seeming to have its source in the room of his parents. It shoneq in the fleeting lights in the room, sometimes taking the form of a syrupy stream, sometimes the appearance of her mother's auburn hair. In the spirit of Sansa, the difference between her mother's hair, hers, or the trail of blood that preceded seemed nonexistent; all mingled, the red hair of her mother, the blood of her father, her own hair, the whole room was closing in on her, suffocating her in its fragrance of hemoglobin. Jailing her in a scarlet ocean. "You must get away" she said then, her feet seeming to ever deeper sinking into the ground. "You must escape, before disappearing."

The girl fell to the ground, unable to stop her trembling legs. She didn't understand what was happening and even less understand how this could have happen. Everything seemed so unreal, the room around her, her devastated house, the bodies of her parents, herself. She could no longer take her own life. Why escape? She only needed to be lulled by the movement of the world around her. To be swallowed up by this piece, by all that blood, hoping to never wake up, hoping to suffocate for good. She had nowhere to go, no one else to rely on. What value was therefore her life now? A lock of hair seemed to drag on her face, leaving a red trail down her cheek. Was it the blood that made her face so wet, or was it tears? Was she crying blood tears?

"...sa!"
"...ansa!"

She felt a sharp pain on her cheek that went out of the torpor in which she was immersed in what seemed like an eternity. Arya's face then became clear to her, the first thing she could really relate to. She clung to such a salvation. Her younger sister was looking at her, covered in blood, a knife in her hand. Arya seemed to be the only thing that was not sinking in that room; she was still wearing her pajamas and her hair were disheveled, Sansa was not sure whether it was because she had fought or if it was because it was past two in the morning. The spirit of Sansa seemed to open gradually, and she noticed the blood dripping knife that Arya was holding. The knife from their father. Her face was tense, and her eyes were dark, electric. Her mouth moved and word reached the ear of Sansa. "But what are you waiting for? We must get out of here, and fast!" he desperately shouted the voice of his sister. "You don't want to die here anyway, huh?" A flash of light. Suddenly the darkness. The door closed behind them, Arya holding her hand, they ran towards the woods.

Fast, and always faster, Sansa feet pounded the floor, but her head floated through the trees and bushes. The night was clear, the stars shone, the moon was full. She could hear the sound of the wind leaves, the nocturnal sounds of nature. She could hear the animals, and she could hear voices. Dogs. She felt the hand of Arya tense and tighten hers harder, then let go.
- They sent the dogs, she said, looking at her sister, significantly. We can not stay together. You must not, Arya said, smiling sadly. I'll slow down, passes. Continue straight, still straight. You should arrive at Winterfell ... See you there. Promise me.
- Wait, you're not going ... Ar ..

Before Sansa had time to protest, Arya was gone, vanished into the darkness. Come back, she thought, the urge to scream ripping his heart. But she could not scream, she must not.. She could only run. She could only flee, only escape. Everything disappears and everything escapes. Then she ran through the trees, leaving fade the sound of dogs, leaving rub her home, her family. Escaping herself, because the fear of being erased too.

"Come back, come back, come back."

Sansa realized she was sobbing, painful feet, blood of red. Was it the blood of her parents, was it hers? Since when had she lost her shoes? She did not know. Around her turned the forest, making her lose her bearings. She hung brambles and stumbled, thrown on the floor. She rolled again, and again, not knowing where her fall was leading her, or even why she was falling. Her run stopping abruptly, she sobbed silently, curled up on herself.

"Please, I want to wake up, I want it to end ..."

When she was certain she finished hers descent, at least a good ten minutes after the fall, she tried to get up in a final effort, but could not. She looked at the stars, her view troubled with tears and she stopped her useless efforts. The wind was fresh, the sound of leaves relaxing. A cracking sound appears not far from her, breaking the religious silence of the forest, and Sansa felt her stomach tighten. She leaned on her elbows, directing her gaze to the origin of the crack, slowly. In the darkness, she could see almost nothing, and the blood was mixed with the tears in her eyes, which prevented her from discerning the human forms from the trees. This was probably a little animal, nothing too dangerous. A bird perhaps. At that thought, she relaxed and surveyed the scene around her. "I definitely left the path of Winterfell" thought the girl. The idea of Arya easily regain her was reassuring however, she should take the same path than her, and they probably would cross. "If Arya manages to escape" whispered a little voice in her head that she silenced quickly. "But escape whao?" the little voice continued, while Sansa held her head in her hands. She had no idea, she could not even thinking, her mind too busy to handle the stinging pain that felt her body.

Not far from her, she noticed the dark shadow of a tree and crawled to go lean against it. Each movement was torture for the girl who felt her mind drop against the stabbing that came from the lower of her body and went back along her spine. Her mind was divided between lucidity and madness in which the same pain plunged her. She did not know if what she saw was real, if this tree existed. If she was alive. Concentrated in her task, she had not noticed the shifting light standing at barely a few tens of meters of her. She leaned against the trunk, and threw a glance at what was left of her body. From what she could see, her feet were covered with leaves and soil, as well as her legs. She put her trembling hand on her legs, over her face. The earth and the leaves were glued to the blood, and this dried mixture gave her a feeling of heaviness. She exhaled, and steam came out from her mouth. Her dress were torn during her flight and she realized, just now that she had stopped running, how she was cold. She tried to remember the feeling of warmth, the embrace of her father, the kisses her mother. But the evidence of their definitive absence in her life only aggravated the cravings, and increase the tremors of her body. She could not even cry, could not even breathe. She dropped to the side and wondered what colors the leaves that carpeted floor were. If they also formed a red carpet. "After all, it is autumn.. this is normal that..it' s so cold .." thought the girl.

Then she noticed the light in the distance, the beam pointing in her direction, weak and trembling. Inwardly, she regretted not telling a proper goodbye to her sister. They had never been close, but Sansa had always deeply loved her. Cherished her deeply. She regretted all sorts of things, regretted the life she would not have, regretted her children's dreams. Her thoughts were a mixture of fear and sadness. The pain in her back gradually faded, giving way to tingling. The light came closer, playing with the shadows of trees and Sansa found herself now in the midst of a shadow carousels. All around her, everything seemed to go in slow motion, anyway she did have no chance to escape in her state. She focused on the light that was approaching increasingly, shaking leaf in her hand. Suddenly, the carousel stopped. Closing her eyes, her lips formed the words that her mouth did not say yet.

"Of course.. the leaves are red."

Sansa looked up ather father,Eddard Stark.
 - We're in what season, Dad?
 - In autumn .. And winter comes right after, little wolf.
 - Winter ? asked the little girl, playing with dead leaves that carpeted the ground.
 - Yes, winter, Eddard said, smiling at his daughter, referring to the rest of the forest. Soon the snow will fall and soon it will be very cold. The trees will have no sheet at all, and the red leaveswill be buried under the snow, everythingwill be white.
 - I do not like the cold, said Sansa,with a sad pout. And I like the red, like Mom's hair. And the trees, they will die?

Eddard watched the crestfallen Sansa, smiling, he approached her, stroking her head.
 - Winter is only a passage darling. In autumn, the trees die slowly. But winter cleans all that, and allows trees to heal and come back more beautiful and stronger than before. The tree right in front of you is the one to which your mother and I were married, andit has red leaves in spring, summer andautomn.
 - Winter allow trees to come back harder, even if they lose their leaves and die?
 - Although stronger, and more beautiful than before! On the death always follows life, Ned replied, amused by septic eyes of the young child. All things must die, but you know what we say to death? Not today.

Sansa felt arms lifting her, and instinctively she closed her arms around the person's neck. She seemed to smells the scent of mint, and to the voice of her father succeeded to the voice of another person, a voice she had never heard before. She opened her eyes but saw only the starry sky, and the leaves of the tree under which she lay. She saw the red leaves. She heard the voice trying to talk to her, to communicate with her, but she didn't wanted to answer. Yet she heard distinctly Arya first name, followed by the word Lannister. But nothing mattered now, only these two words. Her father's words.

"Not today..."